Melodrama draws attention to its own histrionic display. It presents a public language of the emotions. The interest is not in psychological subtleties, but in the permutations within a finite array of possible meaning.

John Baylis, The Sydney Front

Techno/Dumb/Show is a visually elaborate and extraordinarily sensual piece of work which focuses on the formal aspects of performance in a way which rescinds narrative. Yet in a paradoxical way, it is in this act of cancellation that questions about the conditions for, and functions of narrative, can be asked anew.

Pamela Hansford, 'John Gillies and The Sydney Front', Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1991

At the intersection of performance and installation, Techno/Dumb/Show generated a set of untruthful allusions to narrative that varied from each other in such a way that a mesmerising copy was preferable to any original.

The brilliant Techno/Dumb/Show is the result of a collaboration between video artist John Gillies and the avant-garde theatre group The Sydney Front. It’s an aggressive piece that takes the repetition of gestures and details to ecstatic heights. The human actions captured in the piece – a man riding a bicycle, another conducting an orchestra, to name a couple – become amazing conductors of energy. The simple actions are performed with great gusto, an almost demented physicality. Gillies edits the piece in virtuosic style. It’s a work-out, this video.Marie Craven, Mesh Magazine 1996